Apparatus for drying hair with liquefied gas



May 11, 1948. E. R. ELDER APPARATUS FOR DRYING HAIR WITH LIQUEF IED GAS I Filed Dec. 20, 1944 INVENTOR. E's/fierR Elder A TTORNEY Patented May 11, 1948 FFEQE APPARATUS FOR DRYING HAIR WITH LIQUEFIED GAS Esther R. Elder, Pasadena, Calif., assignor of forty per cent to William R. Harriman,

Esther Anne Harrington, Pasaper cent to Mary Ellen Peachten per cent to dena, and ten Hondo,

man, San Francisco, Calif. Application December 20, 1944, Serial No. 569,026

1 Claim. 1

My invention relates to an apparatus for drying the hair. Since excess of heat is deleterious to human hair, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for drying hair with a minimum of heat, the degree of heat to be applied being variable and under the personal control of each individual.

Another object of the invention is to provide such apparatus which will decrease the time re-- quired to dry the hair without correspondingly increasing the temperature to which the hair is subjected.

A further object of the invention is to provide such apparatus for quickly and comfortably supplying the hair to be dried with gas, such as CO2, or a mixture of gases, such as air, having a minimum of moisture content, said gases bein supplied in liquid form, and then vaporized and heated.

My invention also has for its objects to provide such apparatuses that are positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in a working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description. However, the drawings merely show and the following description ment of the present invention, which is given by example only.

In the drawings, like reference characters designate similar parts in the several views.

Fig. 1 is a schematic elevational view, partly in section, of an embodiment of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view on the line 22 of Fig, 1, showin the construction of the drying chamber.

Fig. 3 is a sectional View on the line 33 of Fig. 1, showing one form of fluid heating means, and a variable control therefor.

The method and apparatus of this application is related to a method and apparatus for drying industrial products, disclosed and claimed in an application filed by me on the same date, and given Serial Number 569,02

The apparatus for carrying out the method of my invention consists generally of a supply tank I of liquid gas or dry ice, a gas heating and mixing means 20, and the hair drying chamber 40. The supply tank H] is provided with the usual pressure gauges (not shown), and is readily connected or disconnected.

The liquified gas in supply tank In is released in vapor form by control valve I2 to conduit I l, thence through a timing or measuring device It, and into a heating and mixing chamber 2| which is substantially a vaporizing or expansion chamber. Since the vaporized gas would be too cold for comfort, a heating means of any suitable type, such as the electric resistance heatin coil 23, is provided in chamber 2|. A variable resistance 25, or other suitable control, permits the individual whose hair is being dried, to personally control the temperature of the drying gas. The deflecting vanes 21 of any suitable design, and fan 29 agitate the drying gas to make sure it will be delivered to the drying chamber 43 at a uniform temperature throughout.

The uniformly heated drying gas is conducted from the chamber 2|, through flexible conduit 30 into drying chamber 40. To prevent the drying gas from being wasted, and to insure its uniform contact with the head of hair to be dried, the drying chamber 4|] is made in the form of a loosely fitting cap portion 6| and a snugly fitting brim or mouth portion 43, which may be made from sponge rubber or other suitable material Which is adjustable to different size heads, is comfortable to wear, and which will satisfactorily confine the drying gas in the cap portion 4|. The brim or mouth portion 43 is provided with an annular port 45, or other suitable means such as spaced jets (not shown) for supplying the drying gas fairly uniformly to all of the hair. The drying gas is admitted to the annular port 45 through the inlet 41, while the moisture-laden gas is discharged to the atmosphere through outlet 48.

Method of operation The method of drying hair invented by me, is quick, comfortable, and will not injure the hair. By reducing the time required for drying the hair, the capacity of the equipment in a beauty parlor is increased, and the customers time is saved.

The liquified gas, such as CO2, or mixture of gases, such as air, is substantially moisture free, and is readily supplied to beauty parlors in interchangeable tanks 0.

Upon being released from tank ID, by means of a control valve I2, the liquified gas is vaporized, and as a result becomes too cold to use for drying a persons hair. A measured or timed amount of the cold dry gas is metered through the device |6 into the heating and mixing chamber 2|, where the deflecting vanes 21 direct the unheated gas to all parts of the heating means '23, while the fan 29 mixes the heated gas to a uniform temperature throughout. This temperature is under the direct control of the individual whose hair is being dried, since it may be varied by means of the variable resistance 25, or by other suitable means, where the heating means 23 is not in the form of an electric resistance heating coil.

The dry, uniformly heated gas enters the ini ficiently than ordinary heated air or radiant heat;- Since a lower'temperature can be used because the use of the drying of the greater eiilciency, chamber of my invention is more comfortable than the ordinary hood. The moisture-laden gas is discharged to the atmosphere through outlet 49. The efiiciency is, therefore, not affected by variations in humidity of the ambient air, as are methods and apparatus utilizing ordinary moisture containing air.

While I have illustrated and described What I now regard as the preferred embodiments of my invention, the steps and sequences of steps are, of course, subject to modifications Without departing, from the spirit and scope of my inven tion. I, therefore, do not wish to restrict myself to the particular steps or sequences of steps described hereinbeiore, but desire to avail myself of all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claim.

into direct and intimate deflector in said of the gas released from said source to deflect means, means to move Having thus described my invention, what i claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

Hair drying apparatus, comprising a source of liquified gas, a chamber for vaporizing said gas, means for measuring the flow of said gas to said chamber, a heating means within said chamber, manual means to control said heating means, a chamber disposed in the path the gas stream onto and through said heating the gas through said deflecting means and heating means and to mix the gas to a uniform temperature, a conduit for conducting the gas so treated to the hair, and

means to discharge the gas to the atmosphere, after passing over a users head.

' ESTHER R. ELDER.

REFERENCES CiTED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 820,442 Scheele May 15, 1906 1,059,820 Besemielder Apr. 22, 1913 1,747,342 Adams Feb. 18, 1930 1,775,704 Suter Sept. 16, 1930 1,7992% Reinhardt Apr. '7, 1931 1,931,965 Ravlin Oct. 24, 1933 2,043,721 "Warwick June 9, 1936 2,266,653 Miller Dec. 16, 1941 2,314,101 Phipps Mar. 16, 1943 2,329,352 Krueger Sept. 14, 1943 

